Inheriting the Promises

Introduction

John Adams, the second president of the United States, has gone down in history overshadowed by Washington and Jefferson. However, he is quite an underrated president. He was a brilliant international political strategist and helped the US skirt several wars that would have ruined a new nation with a small, desolated army.

However, Adams is quoted in saying that his greatest accomplishment - John Quincy Adams.

"I must study Politics and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematics and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematics and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Music, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelain."

His point is this - he wanted the next generation to live more fully in the freedom that he was creating than he did.

And a few years later, John Quincy Adams became the president of the United States. Adams would say that John Quincy was his greatest accomplishment.

I believe that John Adams sentiments were correct. We want better for our children than we have.

In the passage we are studying today, Abraham has lived a long and incredible life - a life of faith, learning, and God’s favor and promises. But in the passage today, Abraham is taking painstaking detail to ensure that Isaac, his son, continues to live in the promises that God gave many years ago.

And Isaac is of marrying age. So this passage concerns how God miraculously led the servant of Abraham to Isaac’s wife.

But this passage is wedged between the death of Sarah (Ch23) and the death of Abraham (Ch25).

Why so much morbid around something so good - the marriage of Isaac? The writer of Genesis is displaying to us how God’s promise continues to the next generation. In other words, God’s promise of the gospel was not just for one generation. It was for Isaac and eventually Jacob.

Read Genesis 24:1-10.

Explanation

On the bookends of Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage, we have the death of Sarah and the death of Abraham.

The death of Sarah is significant, because there is an honor exchange between Abaham and the Hittite king, Ephron. The main point of this exchange is to show that Abraham had gained exceeding honor among the pagan people around him. He was well respected and even loved. But what maybe plays in the back of your mind is this question: Sarah is gone. So, what happens to God’s promise once Abraham is gone?

The death of Abraham is less narrative and more geneaology, but we do see that God blessed Isaac after Abraham’s death.

Now, this leads us to the story of Isaac marriage - it is the story of God’s sovereignty and blessing.

Genesis 24:1-9. Abraham understands that his time is short, so he tasks his servant to go and find him a wife.

V1 - Here is that word “blessed” again.” What does that mean? The trend in 2019 was to post something that you were doing on twitter or instagram and say, “hashtag blessed.”

And people would post everything from a good cup of coffee to scoring tickets to their favorite artist to eating their favorite breakfast cereal with #blessed.

When the Bible says you are blessed, it means that you have been given something by God. It’s as simple as that. BUT, so many of our problems in blessing comes from not rightly ordering the blessings.

You are blessed by that cup of coffee. But the moment that coffee stands in the way of the greatest promises - the gospel, the blessings of a right relationship with God, and our looking like Jesus - is the moment the blessing becomes a curse.

C. S. Lewis // Put first things first and second things second. Put second things first and you lose both first and second things.

God blessed Abraham with three things - land, a son, and that he would be a continual blessing. Which was the most important? The third. Abraham’s family would bring about Jesus who would bless the entire world salvifically by his death on the cross. From Abraham would come Jesus. Who blesses both Abraham and the rest of us.

V2 - Abraham took his oldest servant who was in charge of his household and tasked him to find the right wife for his son.

Abraham’s most trusted employee was tasked with finding a spouse for his son.

The man’s name is never mention, which I believe is an intentional detail. Throughout Genesis, Abraham’s servants are mentioned BY NAME. I think the intentionality here is that we live, we do the bidding of our master, and we drop and go to the reward. We are not here to make a name for ourselves.

This also meant that Abraham risked losing wealth, knowledge, and time pursuing his own interests to care for the interests of his son.

There comes a point in time, faith family, where every generation has to do this. And there is a mutual honoring and respect that happens. But we have to look at the next generation and say, “how to we allow them to flourish in the promises of God and the calling of God on their lives.”

When Abraham commissions this man, Abraham also fades from the picture. He does not even bless the marriage of Isaac. The picture is clear - Isaac will continue in the calling and promises of God.

Who is responsible for the wife of Isaac? Who is responsible for the continuance of the blessing? God

Genesis 24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.”

You cannot save your children. You cannot choose the path for your children. And that may make you feel hopeless and helpless.

Our job is not to save our children. If it was your job, you would mess it up. Only God can save your children.

It is God’s job to save your children, but it is your job to lay as much kindling around their hearts that when He does, it bursts into flame.

Genesis 25:11 “11 After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.”

V3–9 // Abraham commands the servant to find a wife to continue the blessing of God but through the commands of God.

“Take a wife from my people.” Abraham did not want Isaac distracted from God by a woman who worshiped another God.

“My son cannot go back there.” Abraham did not want Isaac distracted by his own family to stay in a place that God had not promised Him.

“The woman must be willing to come here.” Abraham knew that what God was doing was IN the promised land. And he wanted Isaac to marry a woman who understood that. This is important for two reasons.

It would require faith on behalf of the woman, and a desire to live in the promises of God. “The most important decision you will ever make in ministry is who you marry.”

It required the faith of Abraham. Abraham wasn’t just saying, well she is the first option. Abraham said, “Your oath to me is fulfilled if she does not return with you.” Do you notice Abraham’s lack of convention? At this point in his life, Abraham has learned to trust the Lord.

V10-26.

The servant took a group of camels. And he made a little deal with the Lord, He said, “God, I am going to ask a young woman to give me a drink of water. And if she selflessly tells me to drink while she waters my camels, I will know that she is who you have planned for Isaac to marry.”

He entered the town and Rebecca was there. He asked if he could have a drink, and she allowed him to drink and asked to water his camels. Just as he had asked the Lord.

After this happened, he found out that she was the daughter of Bethuel, Abraham’s family. God had answered his prayers!

Genesis 24:27 “and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.””

Some of you, God has intervened in your life in ways you could never imagine.

He is deserving of your worship, your adoration, and your praise. May gratitude ever be on our lips.

V27-52

In this large chunk of Scripture, we find out two things (1) God has been faithful to provide Isaac with a wife within Abraham’s requirements and (2) God has provided far beyond what Abraham could have imagined.

Rebekah is of Abraham’s family, and she is willing to go to the land that God had promised Isaac.

But more than that her father was a wealthy man, and she brought back many gifts. She was also kind, and considerate, and helpful. She was determined to be a good wife for Isaac. She immediately went back to the promised land. She was respected among her family.

If you could only see God’s blessing - the millions of ways that God has blessed you - your life would change. Your worship would change.

But for many of us, it is like explaining water to a fish. We live in it to such a point that we do not understand its necessity or marvel at its complexity.

Or maybe, like a sanctuary with air conditioning.

Gospel Application

God “blessed” Abraham with the promised land and the promise of a family that would outnumber the stars.

God has not promised you that. What has God promised you? The person and work of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and a new life.

God has blessed you in a way that Abraham, had he seen it in full, would have traded every piece of land and every possession to hold.

We are BLESSED in this reality - Christ has made a way for us on the cross and bestowed every blessing in heaven and on earth to us through the work of His Son.

Invitation

Give your life to Jesus.

Walk with Him.